Author Archives: jessica

not to be confused with the domino’s noid.

It’s the 8th of May, and many back home are chanting “Hooray, hooray, it’s the 8th of May!” I guess people outside of Washington were tired of missing out; there’s apparently a NOID event planned in Chicago today.

cable bill + passport = ballot.

Some were not so lucky.
Welcome to Indiana.

more than a few days late, more than a few dollars short.

The following letter to the editor appeared in the “Viewpoint” section of our student paper yesterday, the second to last issue this year:
I have worked in Building Services for two years, so most of this is about the people there, plus food service, lawn care and laundry.
South Bend has one of the highest numbers of [...]

the end of the semester crutch.

It might not explain Jeremy’s recent behavior, as he’s still slugging through spring quarter, but I’m sure a lot of us are suffering from end-of-the-semester burnout. You know, when you need something mindless to keep you going. Omar’s on the other side of the wall, cleaning his office. I wrote my syllabi for the fall [...]

wii-fresh.

I find myself refreshing and refreshing this site. Anyone know if there’s a better option out there?

(re)emergence.

Spring is here and I am back, albeit with a desk full of things to do other than blog.

[an aside - I love spring. I don't know if we haven't really had spring the other places I've lived (the Pacific Northwest, the South, and the desert) or if it's just that spring is even more [...]

providence in portland.

My best friend, Laurie, lives in Portland, Oregon, worlds away from South Bend. We usually see each other during the summer, but this year there was a special treat - I’d be at the Pacific Sociological Association’s annual meeting in Portland - that would bring us together an extra time this year.
Laurie’s mom is dying. [...]

speaking of politicians and speeches.

A selection from someecards.com’s “somewhat topical” section.

the road to hell was actually a flight path.

Those red-eyes are so deceiving. Omar and I were at a meeting this week at USC. He chose to stay an extra night so as to avoid the red-eye but spend a day traveling. For a multitude of reasons (first and foremost getting home to relieve the babysitter), I chose to take the red-eye instead, [...]

those reality tv camera conversations, with academics.

The videos on this site are strangely reminiscent of the follow ups at the end of late night episodes of Blind Date or the drunken ramblings from The Real World confessionals (only without booze). It’s a far cry from the solution faculty dreamed up to “turn the tables” on student evaluations.
An interesting aside -

speaking of social psych and hollywood…

(I realize that I haven’t blogged in weeks and now it’s two times in an hour, but bear with me)
Back in my Intro to Soc days I used to have students do this project on stigma.* Within minutes of my last post, a friend shared a link to this little Hollywood adaptation of that assignment [...]

social psychology goes hollywood.

I’m sure that I’m not the only social psychology instructor that hates to show any part of the Stanford Prison Study because of the lackluster video and sound recording (especially evident about a minute into this excerpt). I mean it’s such an important and influential experiment - methodologically, ethically, and intellectually - one would hope [...]

eureka - vacuuming up all that experience.

Erin Leahey at the University of Arizona studies the benefits of specialization for scholars, including its effects on productivity and salary (much to the chagrin of those who aspire to be jills - or jacks - of all trades).
One of the most emailed articles in the NY Times from the weekend is tangentially related to [...]

the state of affairs.

Did anyone else watch the State of the Union address last night?

one of these things is not like the others.

The contents of my campus mailbox today:
Corridor of Shame: The Neglect of South Carolina’s Rural Schools
Cruel and Unusual: Sentencing 13- and 14-Year-Old Children to Die in Prison
The Pacific Sociologist: January 2008

lyrics of the day:

“Sometimes you’re the windshield. Sometimes you’re the bug.”
~ Mary Chapin Carpenter, “The Bug”
’nuff said.

i’ll take sociology for 2.5 million, alex.

(or, possibly, speaking of snobbery part II)
I’ll start with a little history about why I was reading Psychology Today at all (although has anyone noticed it in the check out line lately? I saw it in a grocery store in Berkeley last year). I was reading the NY Times this morning and stumbled upon this. [...]

i need movement.

What song most “moves” you?

it’s more than pocket protectors…

…that divide physics undergrads from their sociology-oriented peers. Apparently, they’re much more likely to think ahead, too.

we have stars, they have punctuation.

The other day Omar and I were listening to an NPR segment reporting that leading economists were predicting a 50/50 chance of a recession in 2008. We immediately turned to one another and asked where our careers would be heading if we made a habit out of predicting 50/50 chances of anything.